


Ephemeron

by Alexander_L



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Love Confessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:41:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29436234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexander_L/pseuds/Alexander_L
Summary: Once war broke out, Yuri has had to write too many names of people he cared about in his book to want to let anyone get close anymore. But it becomes hard to deny the intimacy and affection growing with Dorothea despite their agreement on a casual, no-strings-attached sexual relationship.
Relationships: Dorothea Arnault/Yuris Leclair | Yuri Leclerc
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17





	Ephemeron

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Here is some light angst and smut to celebrate.

“What do you think it’s like?” Dorothea murmured, tracing her fingertips in idle patterns across Yuri’s shoulders and back. “Being with someone who loved you.”

Yuri pulled back to raise his eyebrows at her playfully. “And what’s so wrong with our little arrangement?”

She smiled. “Nothing. Friends make for the best lovers after all, and who has time for romance these days anyways? I just wonder sometimes. Have you ever been with anyone who loved you?”

The question took Yuri aback. As always, Thea was a little too knowing for comfort. “Fucking for love alone is not very lucrative, not when you can fuck for power and influence.” He rolled onto his other side and Dorothea wrapped her body around him. “My whoring days are long past, though,” Yuri added. 

“I’m not trying to provoke you or mock you. I was simply thinking aloud. I guess there’s still a bit of the romantic in me that hasn’t withered yet. I still wonder what it would be like. Don’t you?”

Yuri did not reply. The words _yes of course I do_ made his chest ache to just think.

But Yuri had rules against that kind of thing. Strict rules.

For several minutes he rested in silence then Yuri turned to face Dorothea again to glance at her expression and see if she was falling asleep. Despite the long day, she didn’t look ready for sleep. She was staring up at the ceiling with a faraway look, silently mouthing words to a song as she often did when deep in thought. A pang of fondness struck Yuri at the sight, so strong he felt a little breathless for a moment.

The night they had agreed to adding sex to their friendship they had been in Dorothea’s room drinking their way through bottles of wine in an attempt to wash away the grief of the battle. It had been purely for comfort, arms reaching for each other, lips meeting, hearts aching for the solace of physical touch. 

At first it had stayed discreet rendezvous in Dorothea’s chambers whenever either of them needed to blow off steam. These days they usually ended up in Yuri’s room. Dorothea often spent her days at Garreg Mach in between their battles down in Abyss helping out with tending to their sick and wounded, teaching lessons to the children, organizing supplies and rations. She had lent her magic on occasion too when dangers beset the city.

At the end of such days, it had been only practical for Dorothea to spend the night there instead of traveling back to the surface. And after months it began to feel natural to Yuri to fall asleep and awaken to the sight of her long hair splayed across the pillows and her naked body curled up in blankets.

“What are you pondering so deeply?” he asked, longing for her voice to break the silence and stillness that hung heavily over his room. Abyss was always a little too quiet for his liking.

Dorothea turned to face Yuri and smiled slyly. She reached out and brushed his hair out of his face, leaning closer as she did so until her mouth was an inch from Yuri’s. “If I loved you, I think this is what it would feel like,” she whispered, her fingertips trailing along the edge of his jaw. 

She cupped his cheek in her hand and kissed him. It wasn’t her usual seeking, needing kisses born of a desire to alleviate pain. It was… Yuri wasn’t sure what it was. But it was slow and restrained in a way that felt as intimate as it was respectful. It stunned him and he barely kissed her back, too mesmerized and unsettled by the feeling.

“What are you doing?” Yuri asked as they parted for a moment.

“Do you want me to stop?” she said.

“No,” he whispered, hands moved of their own accord to tangle in Dorothea’s hair as he cradled her head in his hands and kissed her again, doing his best to mimic the way she had kissed them, the carefulness of it, the tenderness. For one confusing second Yuri had felt like a thing being cherished and he wanted her to know what that felt like too. 

As they kissed, Yuri stroked his fingers through her hair, careful not to catch them in tangles. He slipped his tongue into her mouth but it was only to part her lips so he could deepen the kiss. Her tongue played lightly with his and her body shifted closer, resting one leg on Yuri’s hip and moving the other between his legs.

She gave a soft hum of happiness and tilted her head to the side to kiss him deeper. But before they could get too carried away, she pulled back and kissed Yuri’s cheek instead. He smiled without meaning to and wrapped his arm around her waist, tugging her closer.

“Whoever you love someday is going to be one lucky bastard,” he said.

he expected Dorothea to tease back but she did not reply. Worry crept over Yuri as he wondered if he had crossed a boundary without realizing it. Sure, Dorothea had started it, but maybe the joke had gone a bit too far. 

It was sad in a way, wasn’t it? To play at love. 

“Are you alright?” he asked.

She laughed, a light and hollow sound. “Of course.” She sprang up and tackled Yuri, pinning his wrists down on the pillows as she straddled him. She laughed again and said, “Enough foolishness. Fuck me.”

Yuri hesitated a moment, not for a lack of desire, but rather because he selfishly longed to have just a few more minutes of… whatever that was. Even though it was moments ago he already felt haunted by that very first gentle touch of her lips against his.

 _If I loved you_. Yuri’s chest ached, his disappointment visceral.

He gave her his most provocative smile. “Well, when you proposition me so eloquently, how could I resist?”

Dorothea laughed and rested her palm on Yuri’s chest so she could lean back as she rolled her hips. The sensation of her body atop his moving in that way that made his heart pound was stunning enough, but more so was just the sight of her – hair cascading down her back, her chin tipped up and lips parted, her full tempting breasts with nipples peaked in arousal. Yuri had become very well-acquainted with each curve and facet of her figure, warm and welcoming, soft in a way that belied the strength of her body and its ability to harness the power of magic and to ride and run and fight and dance and fuck and live.

Like tender kisses, lingering and yearning glances were also not a part of their arrangement.

“Is something wrong?” Dorothea asked, glancing down at Yuri and raising her eyebrows. “If you’re tired we can just-”

He grabbed her hips and pushed her off and onto her back, kissing her neck fiercely. She gasped and he trailed kisses down to her breasts. Cupping one in his hand and brushing his thumb across it, Yuri nuzzled the other, flicking at her nipple with his tongue then kissing and sucking enough to make her squirm underneath him and moan with pleasure.

“Relax, Ladybird,” he said, pausing to shoot her a smirk. “You’re going to be here awhile. Get comfortable.”

She rolled her eyes at Yuri and made a show of stretching her arms and yawning and settling cozily into the pillows. “Mmm. Alright. Go on.”

After lavishing her tits in a few more minutes of attention, Yuri continued down her body until he was between her legs. He kissed her thighs, pleased at the warmth flushing her skin, but she was nowhere near as wet and aroused yet as he wanted. Glancing up to make eye contact with her, he dipped his head down and teased her clitoris with the tip of his tongue. 

She gasped and stared back at him excitedly, almost hungrily. Goddess, he loved that about her, the unabashed way she craved the pleasure, reveled in every thing he did to her. He loved seeing her artfulness strip away to raw and genuine being. He loved-

Yuri caught his wandering thoughts and shut them down instantly. _Love_ had nothing to do with this. 

He gripped her thighs tight, fingers digging in hard enough to draw just the slightest bit of pain. Closing his eyes, he buried his face deeper and kissed intently, drawing a moan from her and a shudder. As he swirled and flicked his tongue across her clit and closed his lips over it to suck on it, he slipped a finger into her vagina slightly to gauge her arousal. 

She was hot and slick and he considered pushing in deeper to finger her. But Dorothea clutched a fistful of his hair to hold his head where it was, clearly wanting him to not move on yet. He focused all of his attention on her clit and after a few minutes her breath was racing and quiet whines of pleasure were coming from her.

At first she had been a loud lover, full of enthusiastic cries and _“Yuri! Oh fuck! Goddess, yes! Yes!”_ and all the flattering noises most people wanted to hear. Then one time Yuri had paused and looked up at her to say, “Stop performing for me. Just do what pleases you.”

After that she had become a surprisingly quiet lover, and she seemed to enjoy herself much more openly. He found far more satisfaction in eliciting small gasps and whimpers than he did with those honey-sweet cries.

Her grip on his hair grew more frantic and she whispered breathlessly, “I’m… so close… Just-” She was cut off by a gasp as he fucked her harder and the orgasm started to roll over her. He felt it tremble through her whole body, fingers squeezing, chest heaving, thighs clenching, legs coming to wrap around him as she shuddered and moaned softly.

As soon as she finished, he sat up and licked his lips and wiped his chin.

She opened her eyes and stared at him dazedly. “Come here. Your turn.”

He shook his head and clicked his tongue. “So impatient. I told you it would be a while.”

He slipped two fingers inside her and curled them in to stroke at the spot that made her eyes widen and hips jerk. 

“After you come three more times, then we’ll talk about reciprocation,” he said.

She laughed. “Good lord, Yuri, what’s gotten into you?” 

“You were the one wondering what it felt like to be with someone who loved you,” he teased, although he regretted it slightly. The joke stung him a bit after the heartache that had followed their experiment with tenderness.

“And being loved by you means being fucked within an inch of my life?” she said, raising her eyebrows.

“Oh absolutely.” He thrust his fingers into her sharply and her lips parted hungrily. “I’ve been holding back on you. I might be the best lover you’ve ever had, but you still haven’t experienced the half of it.”

“Then show me the whole.”

“You have earned the right to ask me for anything in this whole world, even my very soul,” she said dramatically afterwards, sinking back onto the pillows with a blissed-out sigh.

“How interesting. I better think of what to ask for. In the meantime, you rest for a minute and recover,” he told her.

“Mhmm.” She hugged the pillow and closed her eyes with a smile.

Leaning against the headboard with his knees to his chest, Yuri watched her. Conflict tugged inside of him, painful and yet full of a wealth of unimaginable possibilities. He knew what a truth looked like when it was hidden beneath a bluff. He knew if he were to just say the words hovering on the tip of his tongue to Dorothea she would not shy away from them.

 _If I loved you_. At first he had thought the words a little cruel. But he felt the way they had changed every touch and glance and sigh and he had realized: they were a question she had not known or dared to ask openly.

_If you loved me._

But Yuri had rules against that kind of thing. 

Love unspoken and unacknowledged would fade with time. Affection could not last long unrequited. The way he felt about Dorothea would be easier to restrain if she never knew. If she did, it would grow into something terrifying and irrepressible. He already had dangerously little control over its ardency.

But if there was one thing Yuri had come to know with absolute certainty it was that life was bitterly ephemeral, and even the strongest warrior’s grip on it was tenuous. He already feared the day he would write Hapi and Constance’s names in his book, and his mother’s, and Byleth’s.

“What are you thinking about so seriously?” Dorothea asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Nothing of consequence.”

“Should I be concerned that you look melancholy after making love to me?” she said.

For once, Yuri did not have it in him to banter. He looked at her with frightening honesty and the smile faded from her lips, her eyes searching his questioningly.

“If I loved you,” he said, watching the way she hung on the words, “it would be rather inconvenient, wouldn’t it? We are in the midst of a war.”

She frowned slightly. “I like to think that if someone loved me they would have the guts to say it.”

“And you? Would you?”

She was silent for a long moment then murmured, “Probably not.”

“What a fine pair we are then.”

He watched the way she seemed to withdraw into herself, although her body did not move. She nodded stiffly. “What a good thing we don’t then.”

Suddenly, the conflict in Yuri tugged strongly to the other side, to the part of him that hated the way she withdrew from him when he could have opened up himself to her and had her open up in return. 

Yuri shifted slightly towards her, some unconscious force pulling him to touch her before she retreated so far away he could not undo the hurt he had caused her. He would do anything to go back to a moment ago when she was waiting for him to tell her the truth and to say it with courage instead of the hesitation that just might cost him something he realized he couldn't bear to lose.

“Thea…” His fingers brushed her arm then closed around it, tugging her to face him. She turned without urging, staring up at him with a vulnerability in her eyes that made his heart skip a beat. She was not lost to him yet. If he just-

“This,” he said slowly and a bit breathlessly, lying beside her and pulling her into his arms. He kissed her cheek and lingered there with his forehead leaning against hers. “This is what it feels like to be with someone who loves you.” He kissed her gently then with growing passion. 

She reached up to take his face in her hands and kissed him back desperately. He felt a bit of moisture on her cheeks and pulled back for a second to see tears in her eyes. 

“You deserve so much better than me,” he said. “You deserve better than my hesitance and my doubt.”

“I don’t know what I deserve and what I don’t. I just want to be loved.”

“That I can offer you. I can’t give you certainty. I have no idea what the future holds. But I can love you, if that’s enough for you.”

She smiled and caught his mouth in hers, her hand slipping to the back of his head to brace him as she kissed him so hard that it overwhelmed him. 

“This is enough for me. I love you, Yuri,” she whispered.

He kissed her back until the conflict in his mind eased to conclusion and although his heart pounded with anxiety it was also with desire. And the more he kissed her and the closer he held her, the more another feeling overtook all others. He did not have a word for it but it was something like joy and longing and affection all at once, poignant and thrilling.

Dorothea’s hand slipped down between them to massage him until arousal rose up alongside excitement and his breath was quickening into gasps as he kissed her, his lips becoming clumsy and frantic with desire. 

She pushed him onto his back and climbed on top of him, her eyes fluttering shut and her body trembling as she eased down onto him. He moaned at the familiar euphoria of being inside her, the satisfying heat of her body and weight of her atop him, the harmony with which she rose and fell as he thrust up into her, and the way her eyes met his and she smiled as a loud groan of pleasure escaped his lips.

As their rhythm quickened, she bent down to capture his lips with hers. Her tongue met his and he caressed it yearningly as she fucked herself down harder onto him, chasing after release with ecstasy. 

They came together and Yuri cried out as the cresting pleasure hit its peak and he swept down from it in a heady rush of relief. Dorothea clutched his shoulders and leaned her head against his neck, her breath warm and racing against his skin as she rode the high of the orgasm.

For a long moment, they kept moving, slowly, savoringly. Then she eased off of him and collapsed onto the sheets next to him. Yuri reached out and took her hand, intertwining their fingers. He closed his eyes and breathed deep.

“I love you,” he said, far more liberated by the words than afraid now.

Dorothea squeezed his hand and there was a smile in her voice as she said, “I love you too, with all my heart.”

He smiled too, so wide he was glad her eyes were closed and she couldn’t see it because he was sure he looked like an idiot. But he couldn’t help it, because he knew that it didn’t matter whether this lasted or not. She made it worth it and he would do everything in his power to make it worth it to her.

**Author's Note:**

> Want to talk rare pairs? Find me on Twitter @lalexanderwrite


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